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Another of the Teabox second flush Darjeeling samples I recently finished, I found this one to be rather unique. It struck me as being woodier and more vegetal than many other second flush Darjeelings I have tried. As a matter of fact, I found it difficult to rate because of how different it was.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped about 3 grams of loose leaf material in approximately 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. I did not attempt any additional infusions.

Prior to infusion, the dry leaf material emitted aromas of wood, earth, and roasted grain. After infusion, I picked up emerging scents of cream, roasted nuts, and malt. The scent of the liquor was almost totally devoid of any sort of fruitiness, which was very odd for a second flush Darjeeling. I could pick up a subtle plum-like fragrance, but otherwise, this was grainy, woody, malty, and earthy all the way. In the mouth, I picked up an interesting combination of moist earth, wood, raisin, caramel, green bean, roasted grain, grass, plum, herb, and field green notes balanced by touches of Muscatel, violet, dandelion, rose, roasted nuts (mostly black walnut with a touch of almond), and leather. The finish was subtly astringent and somewhat thin, leaving fleeting impressions of grass, caramel, green beans, malt, toast, field greens, herbs, plums, and flowers.

This was a very complex tea, but it also diverged from the classic traits of the style to the point that it was difficult for me to evaluate. Overall, it was very well made, thoughtfully processed from a high quality picking. I just kind of wished the finish had displayed greater longevity and the body had been a bit fuller in order to better support the barrage of flavors the tea offered.

You know you have a lot of work to do when you look into your tea notebook and realize that you have 20+ unposted reviews. I do not recall drinking that much tea recently, but I was mowing down sample pouches at a ridiculous rate there for a while. For the most part, I found the samples I received from Teabox to be very hit or miss overall, though I must concede that I had more hits than misses. This was one of the teas I tried that I adored.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped about 3 grams of loose leaf material in approximately 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. I did not attempt any additional infusions.

The dry leaf material emitted herbal, fruity aromas. After infusion, I detected aromas of peach, malt, toast, wood, and of course, the trademark Castleton Muscatel. On the palate, I noted robust, expressive flavors of Muscatel, raisin, herbs, peach, toast, plum, pear, malt, wood, straw, and flowers (dandelion, marigold, viola). I also noted traces of roasted nuts (almond and walnut) and orange zest lurking in the background. The finish was somewhat astringent, offering lingering touches of Muscatel, straw, malt, herbs, wood, flowers, and roasted nuts.

Compared to the two other Teabox second flush Darjeelings I recently reviewed, this was more what I think of when I think of this type of tea. It should come as no surprise that I enjoyed it more than the other two and found it more memorable overall (I should also note that I am a huge fan of the teas produced by the Castleton Estate). If you like second flush Darjeelings with a very clearly defined Muscatel character, then this would likely be a tea for you.

Before I begin digging into this chai, allow me to state that, for the record, I have never been the hugest fan of chai blends. I used to actively hate the stuff, but an Indian restaurant in my hometown and exposure to a few solid blends changed that last year. I’m still not the hugest fan, however, and it is not something I aspire to drink often. I guess I’m still trying to find that one blend that gets everything right for me. Unfortunately, this one was not it.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped 3 grams of this chai blend in approximately 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. I attempted no additional infusions. I first tried the infused liquor neat and then with additions of milk and honey.

Prior to infusion, this blend emitted strong aromas of malt, cardamom, ginger, and saffron underscored by touches of nutmeg. The infused liquor displayed all of the above plus touches of wood, brown toast, caramel, and molasses. In the mouth, this blend was biting, astringent, and quick to turn bitter. Notes of malt, cream, brown toast, wood, roasted walnut, caramel, and molasses from the CTC Assam base gave way to strident notes of cardamom, ginger, and saffron underscored by a somewhat gentler nutmeg presence. The finish was similarly biting and astringent with lingering maltiness, nuttiness, and touches of molasses balancing a more integrated spice attack. Typical of chai blends, this was definitely not meant for drinking neat.

With milk, this blend was a rather different beast. The astringency was tamed. Cream, malt, caramel, and roasted walnut rose to the fore while the saffron somewhat faded to offer a greater opportunity for the nutmeg, ginger, and cardamom to shine. I generally take my chai with milk and a touch of honey, but this was not bad with only milk. Still, I felt like the spice aromas and flavors were a little too toned down (to be clear, it was not like I added a ton of milk) and that the blend had lost a little too much of its previously ferocious bite.

With both milk and a touch of honey, I felt that this blend lost all focus. It became a bit too sweet, the saffron and ginger once again popped just a little too much, and the finish turned muddy. Of the three preparations, this one was perhaps my least favorite.

In the end, I was not really sure about this chai. No matter how much I played around with it, I could not quite get it to where I wanted it to be. To be fair though, it was a pretty simplistic blend, so I’m not surprised that it was hard for me to dial it in with additives. Perhaps an additional spice or two would have allowed for the retention of greater depth and complexity once additives came into play. I think cinnamon, black pepper, and/or bay leaf could have worked wonders in this blend. As it stands, I’m glad I tried this chai, but I doubt I would order it again.

Oh man, my backlog has grown exponentially since I received my order from Teabox. I have been mowing down Darjeeling samples at an unbelievable rate ever since. Naturally, I am now making an effort to start catching back up on my reviews. I think this was one of the free samples I received with my order. I’ve never been huge on teas from the Mim Estate since they always strike me as being a little too vegetal, but then again, I had only tried one prior to this one. Unfortunately, it did not change my opinion.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped about 3 grams of loose leaf material in 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. I did not attempt any additional infusions.

Prior to infusion, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas that were somewhat floral, herbal, and vegetal. After infusion, I detected aromas of mango, wood, grass, hay, fennel, and Muscatel. In the mouth, there were notes of malt, toast, grass, hay, lemongrass, fennel, kale, and collard greens balanced by notes of fresh flowers, wood, mango, apricot, peach, Muscatel, and smoke. The finish was clean and vegetal, offering lingering flavors of grass, hay, greens, wood, smoke, and malt.

This tea started off in an interesting manner, but quickly became a little too vegetal for my liking. It wasn’t bad, but I did not find it all that appealing. I have no doubt that some people may really like this tea. I just do not think that I will ever be one of them. To me, this was pretty good and nothing more.

Yet another of the black tea samples from Teabox that I recently finished, this was listed as being a basic second flush Darjeeling suitable for beginners. I ended up buying it solely because I was impressed with the 2016 Turzum First Flush Darjeeling offered by Harney & Sons and because I wondered how a second flush tea from this estate would stack up to some of the others I have tried. I found it to be somewhat more complex than advertised, but honestly, it was a little too mellow for my taste.

As usual, I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 grams of loose leaf material in approximately 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. I did not attempt any additional infusions.

Prior to infusion, the dry leaf material revealed subtle aromas of malt, wood, and herbs. After infusion, I picked up a mix of wood, herbs, Muscatel, malt, cream, straw and orange blossom on the nose. I had to dig a bit, but I was ultimately able to come up with a relatively pleasant blend of toast, malt, wood, cream, smoke, roasted almond, orange blossom, butter, straw, herbs, and nutmeg in the mouth. The finish highlighted lingering notes of straw, roasted almond, wood, and herbs. I was also able to find very subtle hints of black cherry and candied ginger in the background. Oddly enough, I could not detect any definite Muscatel flavor in the mouth despite picking up the scent on the nose.

I have to say that I agree with Teabox’s assessment of this as a beginner’s tea, at least for the most part. I got substantially more out of it than they did, but I think the reason this is best viewed as a beginner’s tea is the lack of a Muscatel presence in the mouth. It may be the aroma and flavor component most synonymous with Darjeeling teas, but I have heard of many people who find it off-putting. Without that component, this just comes off as a mellow, gentle black tea. I didn’t really dislike it, and I think that it would work as an introduction to second flush Darjeelings, but to me, it was missing what makes these teas so unique and appealing.

Would any of you believe that despite the number of single estate Darjeelings I have tried, this is the first tea from the highly regarded Giddapahar Estate I have gotten around to reviewing? That seems crazy to me. Anyway, I found this to be a rock solid second flush Darjeeling. It did not exactly blow me away, but it was quite good.

As always, I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped about 3 grams of loose leaf material in approximately 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. I did not attempt any additional infusions.

Prior to infusion, I picked up subtle scents of Muscatel, malt, and wood. After infusion, the aromas were still somewhat soft, more so than I would generally expect of a second flush Darjeeling. I picked up a subtle, relatively refined mix of caramel, butter, malt, Muscatel, wood, citrus, straw, and raisin. On the palate, I detected an interesting mix of mango, sweet orange, raisin, and Muscatel which gave way to pungent herb, straw, wood, grass, roasted almond, mild nutmeg, smoke, caramel, and butter notes. The liquor’s finish emphasized moderate astringency and lingering touches of malt, herbs, straw, wood, and a somewhat vague fruitiness.

Again, this was a very solid, appealing second flush Darjeeling, but two things held me back from rating it higher. First, I found the body to be thin for this style of tea. Second, I found the way the astringency built in the mouth to be mildly distracting. Now, I am well aware that the way I tend to brew Darjeelings brings out some astringency since I tend to use a little more leaf and steep somewhat longer than many people, but even when I tried a shorter steep time with this tea, I got very similar results. In the end, I found this to be a more or less very good second flush Darjeeling, but I also felt that there were a couple of negatives that held it back from being exceptional.

I finally got my order from Teabox around a week or so ago. Ordering from them ended up being such a huge fiasco. My address kept getting messed up and I was not sure if I was ever going to get my order. Well, after it arrived safe and sound, I decided to just go ahead and jump into the teas. I needed to know if the hassle was worth it. This was the first tea I tried, and I have to say that I was impressed. I have long liked the teas coming out of some of India’s lesser known tea production regions and this one was no exception.

This particular tea is a so-called cloud tea hailing from the state of Meghalaya in North-East India. Cloud teas are generally renowned for their soft, fruity aromas and flavors. I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped around 3 grams of loose leaf material in approximately 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. I did not attempt any additional infusions.

Prior to infusion, the dry leaf material emitted gentle aromas of malt, sandalwood, and fruit. After infusion, I immediately picked up a unique blend of tangerine, melon, and jackfruit aromas balanced by traces of roasted nuts, sandalwood, malt, and fresh flowers. In the mouth, strong notes of Canary melon, jackfruit, tangerine, pear, and white grape were immediately apparent, though undertones of lemon zest, papaya, and mango did not take long to appear. I also noted a nice, mellow blend of roasted almond, honey roasted peanut, malt, toast, sandalwood, herb, straw, and floral notes. Teabox compared this tea’s floral flavor to that of orchids, but I thought it was more reminiscent of a combination of marigold, chrysanthemum, and dandelion. I also noted subtle nutmeg and smoke notes lurking around the fringes. The finish brought out new flavors of butter and caramel to balance lingering touches of roasted nuts, toast, and malt.

A truly unique, fascinating tea with a pleasant flow from fruity to woody/nutty/herbal/grainy and then on to floral before finishing with a nice blend of savory and woody, nutty, grainy elements, it made the hassle of an extended wait for my order worth it. This was my first Meghalaya tea, but it will not be my last. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a unique, flavorful black tea suitable for pretty much any time of day.

This was one of four different gushu oolong orbs I purchased within the last year. I had been toying with the idea of doing a gushu oolong shootout, but ended up reviewing two of the three oolong orbs I purchased from What-Cha and then shelved the project. Within the past week, however, I got the urge to try at least one of the two remaining teas and chose this one purely because I wanted to try one from a different vendor. I didn’t expect to, but I ended up loving this tea.

I gongfued this one. After a quick rinse, I steeped the entire 6 gram dragon ball in 4 ounces of 195 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 15 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 7 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea ball produced pleasant aromas of stone fruits, smoke, wood, grass, hay, herbs, and brine. After the rinse, I began to pick up on scents of longan and wild mushroom. The first infusion produced a slightly more pronounced fruitiness, as well as something of a floral character on the nose. In the mouth, I picked up surprisingly strong, fully formed notes of hay, grass, wood, smoke, mushroom, herbs, and brine. Subsequent infusions brought out touches of bark, tart cherry, apricot, sour plum, nuts, caramel, butter, and minerals. I also thought I got touches of green apple and pear at a few points too. The longan flavor also finally showed up for me. Later infusions were dominated by minerals, grass, hay, funky brine, bark, and smoke balanced by pleasant caramel and butter tones. In the background, I could just barely detect lingering touches of stone fruits and wild mushrooms. The generally indistinct herbal presence also began to take on a more clearly developed camphor/menthol kind of flavor. Oddly, I do not recall finding any real floral notes in the mouth.

This was an interesting and surprisingly durable tea. It just did not want to give up the ghost. I’m guessing I could have easily gotten at least 1-3 more infusions out of this had I decided to push it. Much like the two Jingmai gushu oolongs from What-Cha, this demonstrated a funkiness similar to that of a young sheng. In other words, it was less like a traditional oolong and more like a cross between an oolong and a pu’erh. Unlike the two similar teas from What-Cha, this one had a better body and greater presence in the mouth, as well as greater longevity. I found it to be both a more approachable and more likable tea than the other two.

This is a tea I have been meaning to review for a while now. I kind of have this goal of reviewing at least three examples of each Wuyi oolong cultivar I can get my hands on, but had always put off reviewing a Shui Xian because they tend to be so easy to come by. Well, I finally got so sick of seeing this shiny silver sample pouch staring at me each time I opened the kitchen tea cabinet that I decided to gongfu it after work yesterday evening. I found it to be a truly exceptional tea, though I am not certain the price I paid for it was justified.

As mentioned above, I gongfued this tea. I only had 5 grams to play around with, so I worked with what I had. After a quick rinse, I steeped the full 5 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 208 F water for 6 seconds. This infusion was followed by 15 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 8 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 7 minutes.

Prior to infusion, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of char, wood, rock sugar, and saffron. The rinse brought out touches of jasmine, chicory, moss, damp grass, cinnamon, and aloe. The first infusion brought out enhanced floral and spicy characteristics on the nose, as well as touches of moist earth and cream. In the mouth, I picked up nice and surprisingly robust notes of cream, aloe, jicama, chicory, damp grass, char, wood, rock sugar, cinnamon, saffron, and moss. I didn’t pick up any jasmine-like flavor, but jasmine was indeed there on the nose. Subsequent infusions brought out cannabis, burdock, dandelion, wet stone, mineral, roasted almond, stewed apricot, and butterscotch notes. The later infusions were heavy on mineral, stone, moss, wood, and damp grass flavors, though I could still pick up some cream and some vegetal touches. I also noted the emergence of a buttered popcorn note, which I often find in many Wuyi oolongs.

This was an interesting and very enjoyable tea. Unlike a lot of oolongs, it let me know what to expect up front and then only changed subtly afterwards. Still, there was a lot going on with it and a lot to appreciate about it. If the price were not so exorbitant ($25+ for 25 grams, nearly $6 for a single 5 gram serving), I would probably order more. Overall, this was definitely worth a try, but I’m not at a point where I can once again justify spending so much on such a small amount of tea.

I’m still cleaning out the backlog. After this review, I should only have one or two others to post. I bought a big 8 ounce tin of this tea last year and finally managed to finish the last of it this morning. Over the past week or thereabouts, I have been experimenting with cold brewing this tea, and honestly, that did not turn out nearly as badly as anticipated. Still, I think I favor this as a hot brew. As Chinese gunpowder green teas go, this one was rock solid.

For this review session, I utilized a two step Western-style preparation. First, I steeped a full teaspoon of loose tea leaves in approximately 8 ounces of 175 F water for 2 minutes. I then resteeped the leaves for 3 minutes in the same amount of water.

Prior to infusion, the dry tea pellets emitted smoky, grassy aromas. The first infusion brought out hints of hay, straw, and citrus. In the mouth, I got a nice mix of hay, straw, grass, char, wood, smoke, roasted Brussels sprouts, seaweed, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, Napa cabbage, and grilled lemon notes balanced by a touch of spring honey. The second infusion produced a more vegetal and slightly more honeyed bouquet. In the mouth, I picked up far stronger honey, grilled lemon, and seaweed notes to go with the expected notes of roasted Brussels sprouts, Napa cabbage, wood, smoke, char, hay, straw, grass, cauliflower, broccoli, and spinach. There was also a slight mineral presence in the mouth.

Overall, this was a nice tea. I know that gunpowder green tea is never going to be the highest quality or most complex tea in the world, but compared to many of the other gunpowder green teas I have had, this one had a lot going for it. It may not have been anything out of the ordinary, but this was the sort of tea that would be a consistent, reliable daily drinker for the sort of person who takes a cup or two of green tea each day.